September 2019

This presentation covers the genesis, the preparation, the promulgation, the interpretations and the effects of the Emancipation Proclamation, perhaps the strangest document in American history. Discussed are the moral imperatives that inspired the war measure as well as the more concrete motives of preventing foreign intervention in the war and depleting Southern manpower—the engine that drove the Southern economy—and, the opposite side of the same coin, increasing Northern manpower, especially in Union armies. Also discussed are the Thirteenth Amendment and how the two documents were viewed by later generations of African-Americans.

October 2020

The Second Battle of Winchester was critical to the success of the 1863 Confederate invasion of Pennsylvania. In three days of fighting, Lt. Gen. Richard S. Ewell’s Second Corps, Army of Northern Virginia, destroyed the command of Maj. Gen. Robert H. Milroy, who had disobeyed his orders to abandon the town and withdraw his troops. Ewell performed brilliantly during this battle, leaving the Confederate authorities to have high expectations of him. This talk will discuss the often-overlooked Second Battle of Winchester.